Curious to know who has/had any Altec 'green face' rack gear, had a sweet/bitter reationship with them and would they give up/go back to it? Me? I'm quite novice of them, but I have my soft spots due to their cool looks and modular designs. I've only experience with two pre models: the 1628A and the 1592B (my latest aquisition). The 1628A always seems to be a hiss/hum battle and is finiky about which mics I plug in regarding that noise. Not so much what type (it'll accept anything really), but rather what model. Really havent found that 'knock my socks off' flavor coming from it either, but I'll keep trying. Very mod friendly thanks to the modular input board design - a tweaker's dream! Meanwhile, the 1592B has me VERY impressed! Butt-load of gain/output options, VU meter w/overload indicator, LF and HF eq controls, a goofy test tone generator and that ever-so-handy headphone monitor output on the front panel (no more mic placement guessing...WHOO HOO!). My first 1592B tryout results have me stoked to play more, whereas the 1628A had me puzzling more over noise reduction to the point that I'd lose motivation in laying down any tracks at all.

I bought four 1566A mic pres last year on the eBay for $85 each, immaculate condition. I thought I was going to make a ton of money selling them for what they usually go for ( last one on eBay went for $800) until I tested them out. I will probably never sell these.
I use them with AKG D200E mics on toms and kick. Killer. Every mic I have loves going through these. And they look cool racked together.

I have a couple of 1589B pres, but the output trannies are pretty hissy when you crank them up. Jensen replacements are about $70 each, or I bake and re-pot them.

I have a 1607A that is a beast, but it sounds great. It's a whole lot of weight and space to get one channel out of it. I could do a direct out mod on it, though. Kind of a boat anchor right now. I also imagine it as a send amp to a speaker in an echo chamber/hallway/empty propane tank in the future.

I had two 1567A pres for a while, but I bought them to re-sell. They sounded amazing, but again, a whole lot of unused channels and space. 6 rack spaces for stereo, 6 unused channels.
I always wanted to build a single channel version of these with bass and treble controls and the master volume.

I'm pretty much out of my Altec buying phase and will now just enjoy the 1566A pres.

I have a 1612 pre/limiter that I love. It's 2 channels in and one channel out. Mine is set up with a line transformer on channel 1 and a 1588 pre on channel 2 so I can use it for tracking or mixing. It's a go to input for rock vocals. I tracked a full record last summer with it and a 421 as the vocal chain.

I have a 1592 that worked when I first bought it and then it stopped and I never got a chance to get it fixed. Anyone good with repair on these things? I'd really like to have it back in my rack to use with some ribbon mics.

I have 1592a that I love for that older sounding Motown like guitar.
I have a few working channels but I usually jus use the monitor output on the front.
How do I wire up the outputs on the back??? It looks like I can get seperate outputs back there. This thing would be great to use on lots of other sources.[/quote]

Hello!
I have any different Altec units:1628,1678,1592A and B.
1628 was a moded by the method described here: http://www.beyondsanityproductions.com/ ... &Itemid=28
and does not use the summing amplifier. Only direct out from 1588c modules with adjustment gain. No any noise! Unbalanced short cables to DAW. Nice for drums!
1592s I left without change, and use the summing amplifier, which is quite noisy. But on loud guitars is not noticeable:)
Besides, there is the ability to mix two or more microphones into one channel.
You can also use different preamps in 1, 2 and 3 channels (1588B or 1588C or 15095) of your choice,simply using the right cable, as uncomfortable all the time to climb to the back of the unit...